History and secret histories, the things that free us and the things that tie us to the past are all examined in this exhilarating, multi-layered new play from Tarell Alvin McCraney.

The action is set in an African-American prep school for boys, preparing for its 50th anniversary. Headmaster Marrow (Gary McDonald) worries about pleasing the board and raising money to secure the school's future, when conflict breaks out between his swaggering nephew, Bobby (Eric Kofi Abrefa), and another pupil, Pharus (Dominic Smith). Pharus has the voice of an angel, a devilishly good brain and a taste for manipulation – and, despite the all-male, conservative environment, makes little secret of being gay.

More than that, he has carved out a space for himself: sharing a room with the understanding AJ (Khali Best); keeping on good terms with another boy who wants to be a pastor, David (Aron Julius), and with Bobby's dim sidekick, Junior (Kwayedza Kureya); and harbouring ambitions to be leader of the famed school gospel choir. But when a dispute about the meanings of the spirituals erupts and the white professor Mr Pendleton (David Burke), who was active in the civil rights movement, tries to calm the situation, things turn ugly.

Threaded with searing gospel songs, McCraney's play examines the shifting nature of truths, biblical and otherwise, and cleverly manipulates the hot-house setting to consider wider issues of black American history, from the brutal days of slavery to Obama's cry of "Yes, we can!"

Ultz's design, encompassing schoolhall, showers and dorms, creates the intimacy the play demands, Dominic Cooke directs with delicacy and an iron grip, and the cast make this play about hate and love genuinely sizzle.